Vimeo acquires Livestream, launches pro-grade broadcasting service

Firstly, the company has announced the acquisition of Livestream, the professional-grade live broadcasting provider. The terms of the deal weren’t made public, but it is expected to close in Q4 of this year – until which time the two services will continue to operate independently. Once the deal is finalized, Livestream’s tech will be brought over to Vimeo’s core platform, allowing consumers to stream, edit, and archive events both from traditional video hardware and from mobile devices.

“Live streaming is the No. 1 request from our creator community this year, and we’re focused on bringing a new level of quality, convenience, and craft to this evolving medium,” Vimeo CEO Anjali Sud said in a statement.

Vimeo also launched a new product, available today – Vimeo Live. The new service is aimed at professional grade broadcasters with plans starting at $75 a month. Vimeo Live will operate independently from Livestream and other Vimeo services, catering to power- and enterprise-users. Vimeo Live supports full 1080p HD streaming with cloud transcoding, and auto-archived files can be replaced with local copies of a broadcast in up to 4K.

“We see a huge opportunity in live streaming, Sud said. “We feel every business, large and small, is using live video – and they need high-quality, professional tools to do it.”